Go Cardinals

Anquan Boldin returned to practice Monday, and one he is cleared by his physician, he may be returning to practice permanently as well as playing vs. the Panthers Sunday after his injury vs. the Jets and surgery Oct. 2. Boldin has no lingering effects from the concussion he sustained, nor will he require any special facial or jaw protection under his helmet.

The emergence of Steve Breaston during Boldin’s absence makes the Cardinals’ offense that much more potent.

A game that started and ended with big plays by the DST to give both teams 4-2 records.

J.J. Arrington’s 93-yd kick return for a TD started the game, and Monty Beisel’s 3-yd TD after Sean Morey’s blocked punt won it in overtime; which, by the way, was the first time in NFL history that an OT game was won on a blocked punt.

Kurt Warner started slow, heck the whole 1st quarter was pretty bad and laden with crazy turnovers (believe me I was worried having started Warner in one fantasy league and Tony Romo in another.) But once the Cards got into a rhythm, they were great. Steve Breaston came up huge with 102 yds and a TD, and Larry Fitzgerald’s 79 yds and a TD led the receiving corps; while Warner offered a respectable 22/30, 236 yds, 2 TDs, and 1 INT.

Penalties were huge on both sides (12 each) which I’m sure didn’t make either Ken Whisenhunt or Wade Phillips too happy. But the Cards got the W with no injuries, and frankly, that’s all that matters!!

Dallas travels to St. Louis next week (who shocked Washington at home) while the Cardinals have their bye week.

First of all Adrian Wilson was fined $25,000 for his concussion-inducing hit on Bills’ QB Trent Edwards last weekend. Although Wilson did not lead with his helmet, he was fined and put on notice with respect to any further hits. Additionally, Anquan Boldin will not play again this week and is likely out indefinitely after facial surgery. Therefore, the humble Steve Breaston will, once again, be taking his spot. (Hey Steve, it’s ok to run on the field when your name is called. We all admire your humility and character. Go enjoy yourself this week!!) Look for Jerheme Urban and Early Doucet to contribute as well.

Last time these teams met, Tony Romo tossed 2 TDs and Marion Barber ran for another as Dallas won 27-10. But that was last year.

Currently, the Cardinals’ passing offense ranks 3rd in the league while the Cowboys’ ranks 4th. Kurt Warner boasts a 102.5 QB rating, with Romo closely behind at 100.5. Look for a high-scoring shootout in this respect, but let’s not forget the running game. Instead of focusing on Barber vs. Edgerrin James, the matchup to watch is between two awesome rookie RBs, Felix Jones (4 TDs) and Tim Hightower (5 TDs) – both of whom I have in one of my fantasy leagues…dilemma, dilemma, dilemma!

Each defense, therefore, has a huge task at hand. For the Cards, TE Jason Witten leads the league in 3rd down receptions, so they need to keep an eye on him. Additionally, Terrell Owens boasts 26 catches for 373 yds and 5 TDs in his 4 games vs. Arizona. While DE Travis La Boy has 4 sacks already this year, Arizona must keep an eye on Dallas’ DeMarcus Ware who has 9 consecutive games with at least one sack, dating back to last season, and 5 this year.

The Cardinals are currently 8-2 at home and have thus far quite impressively outscored their opponents 72-17 at home this season.

Just prior to the Bills-Cardinals game last week, when WR Steve Breaston’s was announced for the first time in his professional career, he didn’t emerge from the tunnel. Instead, offensive coordinator Todd Haley found him on the field before the kickoff. When Haley asked him why he didn’t make his entrance, he quietly replied (after trying not to answer in the first place), “It is Q’s spot.” Anquan Boldin has been Breaston’s mentor, of sorts, and wasn’t even aware of Breaston’s gesture until practice Tuesday.

From my friend Ashley, here is a great website looking for diehard fans like you!

Calling all Arizona Cardinals fans!

Have you ever had something to say about the Cardinals? What Cardinals fan hasn’t? Have you ever wanted to start your own blog about the Arizona Cardinals? Now is the time to get online and start contributing to the blogosphere.

ArizonaCardinalsNews.com (http://www.arizonacardinalsnews.com) offers all the tools you need to start your own Cardinals blog. Joining is free and easy. All you need is a valid email address and an internet connection.

Once you join you can create your own profile page, upload an image to represent yourself, and start blogging. Their blogging interface is easy to use with a nice intuitive MS Word style text editor with a spell checker for you to write your blog entries in. Once you’ve posted your blog entry other members of the community can comment on it, and of course you can comment on their comments.

There are a lot of other more advanced features too, like creating a photo library of all your best Cardinals pictures, adding other bloggers to your “friends list,” adding a “widget” (a small bit of html code from a 3rd party which can display Cardinals information) and adding video to your blog posts through a service like YouTube.

You can also roam around the site and read other people’s Cardinals blog posts and comment on them. There is also a recently started Cardinals forum where you can banter about the Cardinals with other fans.

Looking at the current blog posts displayed on the home page it’s clear that while not everyone is a professional writer, nearly all of the people using the sites are die hard Cardinals fans.

All-in-all ArizonaCardinalsNews.com offers a great online experience for Cardinals fans. If you have a moment check it out.

…While Buffalo suffered its first loss. San Francisco fell to New England as well, leaving the Cards atop the division by themselves.

Cardinals 41, Bills 17 (ouch)

Great game today! Kurt Warner (glad I started him over Jay Cutler) added another 2 TDs and 250 yds to his impressive early-season total (and did you know that he has thrown at least 2 TDs in 12 of his last 13 games?) Larry Fitzgerald caught both of those TDs, by the way. With Anquan Boldin out, Steve Breaston, Early Doucet, and Jerheme Urban all stepped up. And the running game? Edgerrin James managed a score on 57 yds while Tim Hightower scored twice on only 37 yds. No worries. The Cardinals slaughtered the previously unbeaten Bills who, I (I admit) thought would win today (my sincerest apologies to the Cardinals and their devoted fans.)

The defense was hot too, creating 4 turnovers and 5 sacks of the Bills’ QBs. Trent Edwards suffered a concussion early in the game courtesy of Adrian Wilson (completely unintentional), forcing J.P. Losman (who lost his starting job to Edwards last season) to take the brunt of the abuse by the dominating Cardinals’ D.

Arizona has won 5 straight home games and are 8-2 at home under Ken Whisenhunt. Additionally, they have scored 76 points in the last 2 games…2nd most in team history.

Next week the Cards host the 4-1 Cowboys who narrowly beat the winless Cincinnati Bengals today. Let’s hope they keep their home win streak alive.

OK kids, this is a scary game. Buffalo is GOOD. I mean Patriots-last-year GOOD. Additionally, the Bills have won the past 4 meetings and lead the overall series 5-3. Now Buffalo has a lot to play for. They haven’t started the season 5-0 since 1991.

Compounding the issue is the fact that Anquan Boldin might not play Sunday following his brutal hit and resultant sinus fracture in New York last week. Incidentally, Boldin leads the NFL in TD receptions with 5 thus far. But the good news is that Steve Breaston, Boldin’s replacement should he not play, was one of 3 Cardinal WRs to catch over 100 yds (along with Larry Fitzgerald and Boldin.)

And let’s not forget Kurt Warner who is already 94-of-141, 1,222 yds and 8 TDs (through FOUR weeks!!) He’s on pace for a 4,800-yd season (he could surpass Dan Marino’s single season record of 5,084 yds in 1984!)

As long as the defense can play a complete game – since Buffalo has scored 45 points in the 4th quarter this season already – and the offense remains on fire, there might be an upset in the making.

After his scary hit last Sunday, a collective sigh heard round the league ensued when it was reported that Anquan Boldin was able to move and had feeling in all of his extremities. Now, it has been reported that he has a fractured sinus, and will undergo further evaluation before returning this season. There is a rehab/surgical procedure he can have or can let the injury heal on its own, but either way, his timetable will be known in a few days.

New York Jets safety Eric Smith was fined $50,000 and suspended for one game after the brutal hit he laid upon Anquan Boldin Sunday during the game…a hit which resulted in Boldin’s being taken off the field on a stretcher and spending the night in a New Jersey hospital.

The hit was called “a flagrant violation of player safety rules” particularly since Boldin was in a vulnerable and defenseless position at the time.

Boldin is at home and resting comfortably. Hopefully there will be no ill effects from the hit and he will be able to play Sunday when the Cardinals host the scary, undefeated Buffalo Bills.